Research picks

The overuse of packaging is a growing environmental problem in terms of resource use and waste production. Unfortunately, interesting and intriguing packaging is a crucial part of the modern approach to marketing and is perceived by many consumers, particularly those buying high-end goods, such as smartphones and other electronic gadgets as an essential part of the purchase experience.

The notion of a "rich unboxing experience" as infantile as that might sound is discussed in detail in the Journal of Design Research. Jieun Bae Busan of the National Science Museum in Busan, and James Self and Chajoong Kim of the Department of Industrial Design, at UNIST, in Ulsan, also in South Korea explore the influence of complexity in packaging design, defined as complexity of action and transformation, upon product appraisal at an unboxing phase of product life cycle.

Their surveillance of the market's response to packaging reveals as one might expect that the complexity of product packaging significantly influences how the consumer appraises the product they have purchased and what might be described as the product's "personality". The findings contribute to a greater understanding of the role of packaging in increased expectations and delight as opposed to dissatisfaction, buyer's remorse, one might say. The findings thus have implications for the use of complexity of action and transformation in product packaging design.

Unfortunately, it seems that the rich unboxing experience is probably here to stay at least for certain types of product unless companies and consumers can negotiate a position where satisfaction with a product is based solely on the product itself rather than the layers of wrappers in which it comes to the possession of the buyer.

New work published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments suggests how professional discourse might usefully be analysed on the micro-blogging platform known as Twitter.

Fredrick Baker of the Department of Instructional Design and Technology at the University of West Florida Patrick Lowenthal of Boise State University in Idaho explain how both professionals and academics now commonly use social networking sites such as Twitter for scholarly discourse around resources and networking. They point out that the use of so-called hashtags – keywords that are assigned a special searchable place within the Twitter system by virtue of adding a "hash, #" character (often known as the pound sign in the US) can be very useful for finding connections between users and related content.

In their work, they have looked at how education is discussed on Twitter by tracking and following the #openeducation hashtag. They used as a scalable mixed methods content analysis model to follow the discourse associated with this hashtag . They were able to analyse almost one thousand Twitter updates, or "tweets" and then group them according to themes. Thirty-two themes emerged from the analysis across eight main categories. They were than able to develop a questionnaire to survey users in a more informed manner and to reveal ties between users and connections within the information discussed that could might then be useful to those involved in open education in the broadest sense.

"The study shows that the hashtag is an active platform for connecting with others and sharing ideas, that open education designs and open educational content are the primary theme areas discussed on the #openeducation hashtag, and that the most active hashtag contributors are active voices in open education in a variety of ways," the team concludes.

Breast cancer is a common illness around the world. It is the most common invasive of cancers in women and affects around one in eight and represents about a quarter of all invasive cancers.

A research team in India well aware of the issues, costs and discomfort surrounding screening and assessment of breast tumours with conventional mammography have developed a novel system for monitoring changes in such a tumour that uses a compact microstrip antenna. Such devices are relatively easy to fabricate and have a wide range of more conventional applications in the world of telecommunications as satellite television receivers and such.

The team describes details in the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology and explains how the devices comprise a radiating patch with a rectangular slot, three stubs, a feed-line and a partial ground plane. The devices operate at a frequency of between 2.4 and 4.76 gigahertz (microwave, or UH, ultrahigh frequencies) and measure the resonance of the tumour, as opposed to healthy breast, tissue, which have different dielectric properties.

The team reports how resonant frequency in the antenna falls as the tumour grows and rises if it shrinks due to treatment. This offers a relatively simple, non-surgical, and less risky way for the oncologist to monitor a tumour of the breast that is also more comfortable for the patient than standard measurement techniques.

Might popular culture, such as the Star Wars science fiction franchise be used to boost skills among those involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)? Writing in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Stephan Längle of the Danube University Krems in Austria discusses the possibility.

His study is based on the period 2000-2018 and focuses on Star Wars as one of the more enduring and well known of the science fiction franchises, It began in the late 1970s and still persists with a huge fan-base across all kinds of media, not just the original cinematic format. He points out that an increasing number of scientists use pop-cultural elements to communicate scientific theories and methods to the public and Star Wars is one of those. Längle suggests that learning through social media is on the increase among STEM students and the pop culture of Star Wars is successfully engaging many students in those areas.

The research suggests that there are two ways in which pop culture might be used in class: science principles might be communicated directly with reference to a fictional world, for instance, or the world might serve as a template for preparing teaching materials. Of course, some learners may not want to learn about the real science behind Star Wars and it may not be suitable for every class, some may be fans of Star Trek or another fictional world. Educators should, regardless, take into account the interests of their students and do so in a serious way so that those interests might be integrates into everyday school life in a positive way that improves learning.

While the world's media may well have moved on to new stories, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which was one of the most devastating in history continues to have a significant impact on the lives of those affected by it. Writing in the International Journal of Healthcare Policy, Mohamed Jalloh of the Economic Policy Analysis Unit (EPAU), Macroeconomic Policy Department, ECOWAS Commission, in Abuja, Nigeria, discusses the long-lasting economic impact.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) causes a viral haemorrhagic fever that is lethal in up to 90 percent of those infected. The virus is highly contagious, spreading quickly through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Control of outbreaks requires coordinated medical services and community engagement. Where infrastructure and response are limited an outbreak can lead to many deaths within a short period of time.

The worst Ebola outbreak we have seen in modern times started in Guinea when an infant died at the end of 2013. The disease quickly spread to neighbouring countries, specifically Liberia and Sierra Leone. This specific outbreak led to almost 30000 suspected cases and some 11,323 registered deaths.

Jalloh's study shows that in addition to the adverse impact of the disease on the people, the consequent isolation of the countries affected simply worsened their economic conditions. This will ultimately reduce still further the ability of those nations to cope well with future health problems of this kind. He suggests that there is an urgent need to strengthen healthcare systems, enhance the training and skills of health workers, to put in place methods to allow people and goods to move more effectively and to improve the coordination of efforts to combat a future epidemic of this or any other emerging pathogen.

One important and specific call to action from Jalloh if taken up would see the World Health Organization (WHO) strengthening its collaborations with international financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as the likes of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in coordinating responses for the combating of epidemic outbreaks

Machine recognition of sign languages is on the cards thanks to work by a team in India who are using a Microsoft Kinect movement-identifying controller. Writing in the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics, the team explains how their system uses just 11 of the 20 joints tracked by a Kinect and can extract novel features per frame, based on distances, angles, and velocity involving upper body joints. The team reports how the algorithm recognizes 35 gestures from Indian sign in real time with almost 90 percent accuracy.

Jayesh Gangrade and Jyoti Bharti of the Maunala Azad National Institute of Technology, in Bhopal, India, explain how many people with a significant hearing deficit utilize gesture-based communication, hand movements, and orientation together with facial expression are used dynamically to convey meaning in as nuanced and expressive a way as any other language dialect. The development of technology that could also be competent in sign languages would give those who rely on this form of communication a new approach to interacting with machines and computers. Camera, digital gloves, and other gadgets have been investigated previously in this context. However, the potential of an inexpensive video game controller, such as the Kinect, that can track body movements could facilitate this rapidly.

The team points out that their approach requires no markers nor special clothing with tracking objects as was necessary with some of the earlier efforts in this area. "We have experimented with a minimal set of features to distinguish between the given signs with practical accuracies," the team writes. They are now experimenting with the Kinect v2 sensor which is more accurate and could push the research closer to its ultimate goal.

Research published in the International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing discusses the potential for a smartphone application that can be used in conjunction with a microscope attachment that might allow a physician to assess a man's fertility much more quickly than is usually possible. The system might even be used by the man himself given sufficient information and guidance. The counting technique segregates live sperm from background noise on the basis of the constant movement, motility of active sperm in a sample.

Hyun-Mo Yang, Dong-Woo Lim, Yong-Sik Choi, Jin-Gu Kang, In-Hwan Kim, Ailing Lin, and Jin-Woo Jung of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Dongguk University, in Seoul, South Korea, explain that experimental results have already demonstrated the effectiveness of their procedure.

"Experimental results with grade A, B and C sperm images based on WHO [World Health Organization] criteria show that each grade sperm image could be effectively categorized by using the proposed sperm counting algorithm. This result could be directly used for the development of consumer device which can classify the health condition of user sperms based on WHO criteria," the team writes. They add that while the approach utilizes sperm motility further research will allow them to develop the algorithm to look at the degree of sperm motility, which will give the man additional information about his fertility as both sperm count and degree of sperm motility are both important factors.

What we often think of as the real world and the online, or digital, realm, are increasingly intertwined in the daily lives of so many people now. Social networking sites boast, for instance, of populations of active users far greater than even some of the most populous nations. New research published in the International Journal of Business Innovation and Research undertook an analysis of users of one of the most well-known parts of the digital world – the video system known as Youtube.

Niyati Aggrawal and Anuja Arora of the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, in Uttar Pradesh, India, hope to uncover what it is about the millions of hours of videos streamed daily from the site that makes a particular audio-visual snippet go "viral", whether it is personal, professional, political, or even educational. Youtube has about 1.3 billion users, 30 million a day watching any of 5 billion videos. That is a large fraction of the world's population and represents, to some, a significant marketing and business opportunity. Understanding user behaviour could allow the commercial world to more keenly tap its potential.

The team's analysis reveals, perhaps not surprisingly, that music videos are among the most popular content available on Youtube. It is, after all, a free service, and this represents a way to listen to one's favourites tunes as well as see the artists or an artistic interpretation of those tunes. The team has, however, developed a model of putative virality based on the length of a given video, its age, and various other factors. They hope that their work points the way to a method for mapping in advance how well a video might do in terms of virality. Of course, the internet continues to confound and a video that is superficially the most esoteric and obscure might go viral spontaneously while the best devised and targeted campaign will only rarely achieve such hallowed status in the digital world.

Almost everywhere one turns, one sees someone using a smartphone or other mobile, internet-connected device. Commonly, usage of such devices is not to make and receive phone calls as one might expect but the use of countless services that allow one to manipulate, share, download, view, listen to digital entities, such as emails, photos, videos, audio files, and so much more. Indeed, many users keep much of their personal, private, and business lives locked and synchronized in these powerful portable computers. But, there is a problem – data leakage. How can we be sure that our smartphones aren't betraying our inner secrets to third parties with perhaps malicious intent or at best with their, not our, interest in mind?

Work published in the International Journal of Security and Networks discusses and assesses the techniques that can be employed to test whether a smartphone or device is leaking data. The team has surveyed the problem for the two main operating systems – Android and iOS. The team explains data leakage is defined as the unintentional or accidental distribution of sensitive information to a third-party entity. This might be leakage to the creators of a particular app or leakage via malware or hacking.

Ultimately, the team found, none of the current defenses against data leakage is perfect nor even entirely adequate. They point out that future developments in machine learning, so-called artificial intelligence, will most likely be the way forward for smart software to protect our purportedly smart devices.

Social media is affecting all our lives in ways we are only just beginning to recognise, whether it is the simple, but constant preoccupation many people have with sharing their digital lives or connecting with friends and family to the outpourings of politicians that are the vanguard of modern propaganda that seems to win elections. In what we might refer to as repressive societies, social media is also having an effect on society. Indeed, it is providing a medium for empowerment that has not existed before.

Research published in the International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, focuses on one particular aspect – the issues facing transgender entrepeneurs in India, a country considered to present particular restrictions to certain minority groups that may well not be of such concern in freer societies. Guruprasad Gadgil of the Francis Marion University, near Florence, South Carolina, and Gayle Prybutok and Victor Prybutok of the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA, explain that research in this area is lacking. They have now carried out a case study, which they say is a first step towards addressing the research gap.

"A key finding points out the important role that social networking plays in entrepreneurial success when the transgender entrepreneur's skill set is an integral part of a small scale or family business endeavour," the team says. "This study suggests future research directed at understanding the unique aspects of transgender entrepreneurism in India and informs on entrepreneurism and public policy in India about this population of entrepreneurs." They conclude that "This research has filled an identified research gap and highlighted the challenges of this unique group of entrepreneurs."